Standard Units in Miniatures of the Manuscript no. 20 in Russian State Library, Fund 173.I

Abstract

The proposed article is addressed to the phenomenon of typical graphic elements used in Russian late medieval visual art; the study is based on the material of miniatures of the wellknown illuminated manuscript of the Commentated Prophet Book from the collection of the Moscow Theological Academy. Previously, a detailed comparison of the drawing of paper icon samples, and later of the icons themselves of the 15th–16th centuries as well, led to the conclusion that icon painters widely use a set of the same systematically repeating graphic elements. They can always be seen in almost any icon, in different numbers and different combinations, in the most dissimilar images and regardless of who or what is depicted on the icon: the Savior, the Virgin or a prophet; regardless of whether the image in front of us is a half-length image, shoulder-length or full-length figure; regardless of the pose, gestures and type of clothing. Those elements are used constantly, although their number and set may vary significantly from case to case. In addition, their graphics vary quite freely: the proportions within the block and its dimensions change relative to other parts of the image, straight lines may be more or less curved, or part of the block may be hidden by another detail or, on the contrary, shown two or more times. Sometimes some part of the block is inverted, shifted or reduced, but the structure of the block remains the same. This observation makes it possible to significantly clarify the ideas about the principles of icon-painter work in the 15th–17th centuries: the drawing, for example, of a human figure and their robes was not copied literally from icon to icon, neither was invented completely anew each time; the image was more or less “constructed” from already existing ready-made blocks, either in the literal sense, or they filled in a ready-made general compositional scheme or a part of it, which itself can be considered as a standard block of a higher order. The miniatures of the manuscript under study serve as a clear example of the use of standard blocks in the Moscow illuminated book of the 15th century. The article for the first time compares a large number of deesis and prophetic images.